The Muslim Brotherhood and their ‘Fifth Column’ problem

The fifth column is a common political and social sciences idiom introduced by General Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War, which broke out in 1936 and lasted three years, when his nationalist troops were marching toward Madrid. He said his four columns of troops approached the capital, the fifth column of henchmen inside the city would support him and undermine the Republican government from within. They are a group of undercover agents assigned to foment fear, tumult, to spread chaos and disarray, besides conducting armed assaults in order to destabilize and cripple the internal front and consequently the fall out of the beleaguered city.

The fifth column is likely composed of journalists, politicians, celebrities, the elite society, as well student delegates to foment upheaval and turmoil to undermine the state public order.

In some of the GCC states, the Muslim Brotherhood managed to established “fifth columns” in private and government sectors civilians and military alike. The group’s “fifth column”, inside Arab and Gulf states, adopts diversified tactics, among them: violence, deceitfulness, and subversion playing on ethno, sectarian and ideological disparity tone.

It is aptly right to know an answer to this question: Why the Muslim Brotherhood uses the fifth Column concept to disparage nationalists and retaliate against them? The answer is: because they envisage these patriots as the government safeguards, thusly the authority is targeted via them.

This “traitor column” embrace various gambit, ruse and deceptive means to achieve two goals: petrifying people particularly those anti “Brotherhood, and, to increase empowerment, impact, and clouts.

Don’t be bewildered by “Brotherhood fifth column” claim of fighting radicalism and cautioning from ISIS though it is the root of terrorism and treachery. Those who know the “Muslim Brotherhood” well, are fully aware of the group mechanism and tactics. Hassan al-Banna once characterized assassins, under his command, as neither Brothers nor Muslim, in addition to abu Mohammed al Maqdisi who advocated against ISIS in statements and orations deemed as one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s technique.

It is worth noting that the “Brotherhood” have had preached against ISIS only when militants broke free from the group’s grip, which explains why they never alerted against al-Nusra or even the symbols of the terror group such as Abdullah al-Muhaisni. For the long and the short, these are the “Muslim Brotherhood” ruses. The government, chiefly in Gulf states, are to embrace a stern approach to challenge and choke the group. They are merely a “treacherous fifth column” goes by al-Banna saying: “we are not loyal to any government’

This article was first published on al-Roeya on March 04, 2017. ___________________________________ Naif Al-Asaker is a writer and researcher on Islamist groups. He tweets @NaifalAsaker.